I've got a lot of notes on this one:
This is one of those "WHAT AM I GETTING MYSELF INTO?!" kind of fics. It's quite a bit bigger than my previous LnC works (though definitely not huge), and in all honesty it scares the crap out of me. I'm nervous.
That's why I posted this part, which is short and just a little different from what you saw in the series anyway. If I don't post this now I'll probably chicken out.
A word on the title: I don't really like using a name of one of the eps as a title, but I really thought it fit what this story is about, and I really hate coming up with titles. It may change by the time I'm done. If you have any suggestions please let me know.
Also, I would thank the heavens for a beta reader for this one, or at least someone to bounce ideas off of!
So anyway, this is an idea that nagged at me until I had to write it. *Deep breath* Now that my notes are longer than the story so far...
What if the New Kryptonians had come to earth about a year earlier than they did? How will things go when Clark has to leave right when Lois was beginning to realize her feelings for him? Will they realize what they have at stake?
Through A Glass, Darkly
Prologue
He is the one.
The world seemed to crash down around him in a single flash of white-hot agony, wrenching him out of the secure cocoon of unconsciousness and into a pain-muddled reality. The only protest to this jarring awakening his body would allow was a deep groan, his lungs burning as they greedily sucked in air.
A flash of green. Kryptonite.
Something about a kryptonite... forcefield? Thoughts and memories swirled and danced in his brain, never settling in one place long enough for him to reach comprehension.
Two people in odd clothing.
A woman. Dark, long hair. Someone he sort-of knew.
A man. Dark and tall. Someone he was supposed to stop.
A gun.
I intend to shoot myself.
He had saved him, hadn't he?
A current of panic flooded through him, overriding the pain of his every move and forcing him to open his eyes. Everything seemed so bright, even though it was night and the sun was long gone, and for a moment he had to shut them again. The world spun and swayed around him for a good while, but as the dizziness lessened the pain seemed to dim as well, fading into the background as his body and mind settled.
He became aware of the hard concrete and brick beneath and behind him, cooling his heated skin through the thin layer of spandex that did little to protect him without his powers. Opening his eyes again, he realized he was now alone on the balcony of his apartment. There was no sign of the two who had been there with him, and if it wasn't for the dull ache in his muscles that told him he had been exposed to kryptonite he might have thought he imagined it all. It was all so fuzzy, the memories of what happened going in and out of focus in his brain as if someone was adjusting the knobs of a projector.
It was Sarah, the new research girl from work, and the guy who claimed to be a realtor at the house where he found the micro transmitter. They had contacted him somehow, in his mind, that wasn't quite like super hearing. They had been waiting at his apartment when he got there, and when he had tried to reach the man... Hadn't Sarah called him Ching?...a kryptonite forcefield appeared.
He could remember the fear as the gun appeared in Ching's hand and his intentions to take his own life became clear. A fear he both felt and heard reflected in Sarah's voice as she argued with him to be reasonable. He could remember how everything seemed to slow down as Ching raised the gun to his own temple. Try as he might to speed up, it had felt like he was going in slow motion as well as he launched himself toward the man, stretching his arm as far as he could to knock the gun away.
And that's where most everything fuzzed out. The kryptonite had taken over all of his senses by then. What little he could recall didn't make any sense. Had he really seen them fly off? No, he must have been delirious. Other than that all he could remember was their voices, speaking words he couldn't make out in the haze of pain.
He had only heard one phrase, and it rang in his ears still. He didn't understand it, but he knew it would change his life.
He is the one.
---------------
tbc
