Hello everyone!
POSTED: Caution, cliffhanger at work!
Table of Contents From Part 4:
“Wait. Both of you. Just stop,” she said, holding her hands up. “Superman, you’re no good to us if you’re dead. Richard, do you honestly think if you just show up with Superman in tow that Luthor is going to hand Jason over to you and let you go on your merry way? No way! We need to sit down and think about this. We have to have the upper hand.”
“Oh, we already have the upper hand, Lois,” Richard said as he turned to walk back inside the building. When he came walking back out, Clark felt a sickening weakness go flooding through him. His legs faltered and he dropped down to his knees in front of Richard.
**********
PART FIVE
**********
“Richard no!” Lois screamed as she saw him brandish the green chunk of poisonous rock. She reached out to Clark, steadying him and trying to help him to his feet. She jerked her head back to look at Richard. “How could you? What could this possibly accomplish? You’re weakening him and we need him. Give that to me!” she said, reaching out to take the rock from him.
“No,” Richard said calmly, holding one arm out to stop her. He looked down at Superman. “I’m sorry, Superman. Regardless of my feelings about you right now, I would have never hurt you like this. Hell, I risked my life as well as Lois and Jason’s to save you. But Luthor said if I didn’t use this Kryptonite to weaken you and deliver you to him, that he would kill my son. I... I’m sorry.”
“Richard, don’t do this,” Lois pleaded with him as she helplessly watched Clark slump down to the rooftop. He was moaning softly, clutching his sides. “You’ll kill him. Or if you don’t, Luthor surely will. You can’t trade our son’s life for his... and even if you could, Luthor won’t let you.” She took a deep breath. She was going to have to tell him. There was no way around it. Luthor had suspected that Jason was Superman’s son when they were on his yacht and, when they were in that other universe, Tempus had hinted at the possibility that he knew Jason was Superman’s son. Someone would have had to have given him that information. According to Tempus, Luthor had exchanged information to get passage off that island.
If Luthor knew that Jason was Superman’s son, there was no way he was just going to hand him over to Richard.
But Richard didn’t know that.
Lois had been afraid to tell Richard that Superman was Jason’s father. She had not only been afraid of what that would mean for her relationship with Richard, but also that it might put Jason in danger if anyone knew he was Superman’s son.
But someone probably already knew... Luthor. And now it might be a protection for Jason if Richard knew too.
Lois moved her body in between Richard and Clark and put her hands up in front of her as if to keep Richard back.
“Lois, move. I have to do this... for our son. When Jason is safe then I’ll find a way to save *him*." He nodded at Clark. "Lois, I promise you I will. Now, please, get out of the way,” Richard told her, advancing on her.
“No. Richard, there’s something you need to know first.” Oh god, how did she say this? “There’s something I haven’t told you... about Jason.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Trust me. This matters,” she assured him. “Jason is special. Very special. That’s why Luthor has him. He’s using him as bait to draw Superman in.”
“Why? Why would he do that? And what do you mean he’s *special*?” He reached out and pushed her aside with his free hand, bearing down on Superman. “This is ridiculous, Lois. We don’t have time for this.” He looked down on the writhing form of Superman with regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said softly as he bent over him, holding the Kryptonite closer to his body.
“No! Richard! Don’t. You’ll kill him! He’s Jason’s father!” she blurted out without further hesitation, her hands on his arms trying to pull him away from Clark.
She watched in terrified silence as he stopped fighting her and stood up. He turned around to face her and his eyes held the pain of betrayal in them. The look on his face cut through her like a knife through softened butter. The piece of Kryptonite slipped from his hand to the roof below them.
Lois picked it up and hurled it up to the roof above them before kneeling down beside Clark.
“His father? That can’t be true.” Richard’s voice was raw and ached with loss.
As he was speaking the door behind them flew open and a new voice spoke, but one she knew all too well. “I’m afraid it is true.”
Luthor.
Lois watched as Luthor strode arrogantly out onto the rooftop, followed by two grisly looking thugs – one of them holding her son under his arm.
“Jason!” She leapt up and ran towards him. The thug holding Jason pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. She stopped dead still and glared at Luthor. “Let him go!”
“Oh sure... yeah... I’ll do that,” he drawled sarcastically at her. “You know for being a reporter, Ms. Lane, you sure don’t have a lot of brains about you sometimes.”
“Is he okay?” she asked and then looked at Jason. “Are you okay, sweetie?”
He nodded his little head at her and she felt a tiny bit better.
“Oh, he’s fine,” Luthor told her flippantly. “In fact, he’s about to conduct a little experiment for us, aren’t you, Jason?”
Jason looked confused. He didn’t seem to know any more than the rest of them what Luthor was talking about.
Lois risked a glance at Clark out of the corner of her eye. He was watching Luthor intently. He hadn’t gotten up from the roof yet, but she imagined that was only a farce. He had to be getting stronger with each passing moment. Didn't he?
“What are you talking about?” she growled, hoping to keep Luthor talking until Clark was strong enough to do something.
“We’re about to test your little admission that Jason here is Superman’s son. First, let’s test that theory on an emotional level, shall we?” At that, Luthor snatched Jason out of the thug’s arms and carried him kicking and screaming over towards the spot where Superman lay.
“Stop.” She started to run towards Luthor but one of the thugs grabbed her and shoved a gun in her side. She looked over at Richard, he was being held in the same manner. “Luthor, stop. I was lying. Jason isn’t Superman’s son. I only told Richard that to keep him from hurting Superman,” she lied. She could feel the stare coming from Richard and she didn’t look at him. She would sort everything out with him later, if they were all still alive, that is.
Luthor stopped and turned back to look at her. “Oh, but I think he is, Ms. Lane. You’re forgetting the little piano incident,” he told her, smirking at her.
He knew about the piano? Of course he did. His thugs would have told him what happened.
She was about to deny what had happened when she saw Jason grip a piece of Luthor’s hand between his teeth. He bit down and Luthor winced, letting go of him with that hand and shaking it gingerly. Lois smiled despite herself at her son’s tenaciousness.
“Oww!” Luthor exclaimed, grabbing hold of him tighter with his other arm. “You little miscreant, I was going to enjoy this even before you did that, but now I’m positively going to relish it.”
Luthor hauled him the last few feet and stopped just a few feet back from Superman, standing Jason up in front of him. He pulled a small knife out from inside the long duster he was wearing and wrapped his arm around Jason, holding the knife to Jason’s small throat. The waning sunlight reflected wickedly off of the blade.
“Stop! Luthor! What do you want!” she yelled at him.
He ignored her, addressing Clark instead. “Superman, so horrible to see you again. Why can’t you just die? Oh, I forgot, you’re invulnerable. Well, let’s see if we can’t remedy that, shall we?”
Luthor pulled a pill bottle out of his pocket with his free hand and popped the cap off with his thumb. “So this little grommet is your progeny, huh?” Lois watched in horror as Luthor ever so slightly slid the knife across Jason’s throat, just enough that it drew a small line of blood.
Clark's face looked stricken, but he remained absolutely still, just watching Luthor. What was he waiting for? Or maybe he was just afraid? Afraid to do anything that might push Luthor...
“No!” she cried, struggling against the man who was holding her. She drew her foot up and stomped it down hard on his. The thug took his gun out of her ribs where he had it jammed against her and slammed it against the side of her head, leaving her feeling dazed and seeing spots.
“Hmm, I don’t know, Superman,” Lois heard Luthor say; she tried to shake off the pain and concentrate on what was happening. “You know, I’m no doctor, but that looks like blood.” He looked back at his henchmen. “Does that look like blood to you, boys?”
They both nodded at him like the stupid, mindless minions that they were.
Luthor looked back at Superman, grinning profusely. “He doesn’t seem very *super* to me.”
Just then, Jason pushed the knife away and spun in Luthor’s arms, putting his hands out against Luthor’s body. It looked to Lois like he was going to push him, like the piano. Luthor slipped the knife down to the boy’s abdomen and tightened his grip on him with his other arm in one swift motion.
“Hold it, half-pint. Don’t make me kill you. I’m not done with you yet. Put those little arms of yours back down to the side,” Luthor said evenly.
Jason looked skeptical and Lois was afraid he just might decide to try it anyway. Children didn’t have a very good grasp of the concept that they could die. And she didn’t even want to think about the ramifications of that when it came to a half-Kryptonian child who was realizing that he had special abilities.
“Do what he says, Jason. Please,” Lois instructed him.
Jason looked up at her and then back at Superman. He reluctantly lowered his arms back down.
Luthor smiled at Lois, an expression that sent chills down her spine. “Good boy.” He looked back at Superman and wrinkled his mouth into a frown. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes, unless you want me to take another swipe with this knife, I suggest you take the capsule inside this bottle.” He repositioned Jason in one arm, with the knife back at his throat, and he held the pill bottle out to Superman.
Clark reached out with his hand and Luthor deposited a powder filled capsule into it. Clark cried out and dropped the pill, allowing it to fall to the roof.
Lois’s eyes went wide. No. It couldn’t be...
“Yes, that’s right, it’s Kryptonite." He allowed the word to dance off his tongue. "You can either take this pill yourself, or I’ll give it to little Jason here instead. Either way, one of you is taking it.”
“Don’t do it! He’s bluffing. It won’t hurt Jason!” Lois yelled out to Clark. At least she hoped it wouldn’t. Jason might be the son of Superman, but she’d observed what had happened when Luthor had threatened him with the Kryptonite on his yacht. Jason hadn’t been affected.
“Oh, Ms. Lane, don’t be such a killjoy,” Luthor chided her. “Fine. You either take this pill, Superman, or I slit the boy’s throat. We *know* he’s susceptible to that.”
Clark looked up at Lois and she could see the resignation in his face. No, please, she silently begged him with her eyes, don’t do it. There had to be another way. Hadn't he had revived enough that he could fight? Couldn’t he just scoop Jason up in his arms and fly them away?
If he swallowed that Kryptonite pill, he was signing his death sentence. She could pull a shaft of it out of his back like she had only a few days ago, but she couldn’t do anything if it got into his bloodstream.
He shifted his gaze from her, to Richard, and then to the tiny life that Luthor held in his grasp. To her distress, he smiled at her sadly.
He wasn’t willing to take any risks when it came to Jason. And she had been right earlier when she had thought to herself that he loved their little boy more than anything. More than life itself.
She watched helplessly as he picked the capsule up from the roof, grimacing in pain against the feel of it in his hand. He brought his hand up to his mouth and allowed the pill to slide inside. She could see the muscles in his neck flex, and his Adams apple slide up and down, as he swallowed the deadly poison.
“Nooo!” she cried out softly, allowing her body to go limp against the arms of the thug holding her. No. He couldn’t have.
Her mind couldn’t grasp the fact that this wonderful, amazing man was going to be dead shortly. No longer there to save them. No longer there to see his son grow up and follow in his footsteps. No longer there to hold her, love her. “Oh, Clark,” she whispered breathlessly to herself. What had he done?
Clark looked up at her with tears in his eyes.
**********
“Oh, Clark.” Clark could barely make out the words that slipped from Lois’s lips, but they touched him so deeply. The anguish they held told him how much she loved him and would miss him if he were gone.
But that wouldn’t be today.
The pill under his tongue felt like it was going to burn its way through the soft tissue of his mouth and drop out the bottom of his jaw at any moment.
He knew that wouldn’t really happen, but that’s what it felt like. He finally gave in to the pain, crying out, and Luthor smiled smugly. Clark clutched his sides trying to convince him that the pain was coming from somewhere lower than his mouth.
If Luthor would just believe his performance. If he would just lower the knife from Jason’s throat, Clark could actually do something. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to the two thugs holding Lois and Richard. They had semi-automatic weapons jammed into their ribcages. What worried him was if, in his weakened condition, he’d be able to stop Luthor and still be able to save Lois... and Richard.
“You know,” Luthor chirped happily at him. “As much as I’m overjoyed to see you do that, I’m still not absolutely positive this boy is your son.” He looked down at Jason in his arms. “Do you think you’re the son of Superman?”
Jason stared wide-eyed at him, refusing to answer.
“No comment, huh?” Luthor asked and shrugged.
What happened next almost seemed to go in slow motion but in reality it happened in the blink of an eye. It transpired so fast that Clark in his weakened state didn’t even have time to react.
Luthor dropped the knife and shifted Jason in his arms, hoisting him up in the air in front of him.
Richard punched the thug that was holding him and struggled to get free.
Lois threw her head backwards into the nose of the thug that was holding her and he screamed out in pain as blood began running freely from it.
Jason screamed, pushing out at Luthor with his hands.
Luthor let go of him as Jason pushed against him. Luthor went flying backwards across the rooftop and Jason’s momentum sent him sailing backwards over the railing.
Luthor rose up, smiling smugly. “Tell me, do you think he can fly?” he asked in amusement, dusting his hands together as he got up from the roof.
“No! Jason!” Lois screamed. The thug holding her finally let go of her to tend to his broken nose and she ran towards the edge of the building.
Clark hauled himself up from the roof and launched himself up and over the railing, silently praying that Jason was far enough away from the building not to hit anything on the way down.
As he folded his arms in tightly to his body, streamlining himself as much as he could, he spat the Kryptonite capsule from his mouth. He couldn’t feel his tongue, cheeks, or halfway down the back of his throat. All he could feel was fire. It felt like the delicate tissues had been burned away by acid.
But what worried him more was the fact that he wasn’t flying.
He was falling.
As hard as he tried to control his descent or even add speed to it, he realized he couldn’t. His powers were faltering. That capsule had started to dissolve inside his mouth. It was possible that some of it had been absorbed.
He worked the saliva in his mouth as he continued to fall and he spit furiously, trying to get the tainted fluids out of his mouth.
He willed himself to dive faster.
“Jason!” he yelled as loud as he could. His son was mere feet below him and the ground was coming up fast. “If you can hear me, I want you to push, like you’re trying to push against the ground. Put your hands out in front of you and push! Will yourself to slow down!”
He watched his son reach out with his hands and make a pushing motion; relief flooded through him as Jason abruptly became closer. Clark reached out and his fingers caught the fabric of Jason’s shirt.
He gathered him up into his arms and turned over, putting his body between his son and the earth below them. With every ounce of strength he had left in his body, he willed them to stop.
But they didn’t. They slowed, but they didn’t stop.
He just didn’t have enough left in him.
They were still going to hit the ground, hard.
“Jason, I need you to push again, like you just did, okay?” Jason nodded his little head at him. His eyes were wide and he looked scared. “We’re going to hit the ground. When I tell you to push, I want you to push as hard as you can.” Another nod. Clark tightened his arms around his son, clutching him desperately. “Don’t worry, it’ll be all right.”
Clark looked behind him - the ground was coming up fast. He exerted one last effort to slow them further and then he closed his eyes and waited.
This was going to hurt.
When he felt the air compact beneath his body, between him and the ground under him, he gave Jason a toss into the air. “Push! Now!”
And then he felt the breath knocked from his lungs as the weight of his body slammed against the hard, unyielding concrete beneath him.
The last thing he saw before he passed out was the image of his son coming down to rest against his chest. Small hands were groping at his chest and face.
“Dad?”
**********
To Be Continued (not sure when the next post will be - it might not be till Sunday night)
