Again, a big thank you to all the people who FDKed! 
It means a lot to me to hear what you have to say about this. I'll have to post my responses at a later time, though. Right now, I have to run get ready to go take my Finals. 
I hope this is a long enough post to justify M/T. Please let me know how it works out for you, okay?
Thanks for reading! Hope you Enjoy! 
Link to TOC From Part 4:Clark looked around the room. Sure enough, people were pausing in whatever they were doing to stare at him and Lois. Others were casting intrigued glances at the door which the strange woman had so recently bolted through. Clark nodded and tucked the globe into his coat pocket. "We need to call Mom and Dad."
"Let's go there," Lois said. "I'll tell Perry we have a family emergency, and then we can..." She made a little flying gesture with her hand.
Clark agreed, then stared back down at the globe. Before Lois could leave, his head snapped up again. "Lois, what if---" A look of horror crossed his face, as he suddenly thought of the unthinkable. "What if something..."
Lois placed a hand on his arm. She looked like she was about to say something reassuring, and she opened her mouth, but then she closed it again and frowned. "Clark," she said at last, "we've been through a lot before, and so have your parents. Whatever hap---whatever's going on, we'll get through it." She gave him a brief kiss on the lips, and then turned, bound for Perry's office.
And Now, Part 5:They landed in a field behind the house, and Clark set Lois down. Nothing seemed to be stirring. To Clark's mind, the moments seemed to stretch on into eternity, and each one that passed caused his heart to beat louder and louder in his own ears.
Then, a simple screen door swung open, and a woman came running out to meet them.
His mom.
Clark felt the crushing fear evaporate as his mother smiled and threw her arms around him.
"Clark!" she said. "What a pleasant surprise!" She hugged Lois also. "So," she said, pulling back to study them, "What brings you here?" Her smile suddenly dropped, and a frown took its place. "....What's wrong?"
Lois began to tell her about their encounter with the strange woman at the Daily Planet. When Jonathan finally arrived from the barn, the story was repeated for him also, at which point Clark changed into his civilian clothes and pulled the sphere from his coat pocket. A faint aura now surrounded it.
Clark and Lois exchanged glances, which his parents noticed.
His Mom stared at the glowing sphere, uncertain of what to make of it. "Well, Clark," she assured him, "I don't know what to say... Nobody suspicious has been around since the last time we checked on your globe. In fact...I'm fairly certain..." She took it from his hands and turned it over, scrutinizing it. "No. I don't think it's the same one. It's...different, somehow." She handed it back to him.
"Could we check anyway, just in case?" he asked.
He probably didn't even need to ask the question. His parents were more than willing to lead them back to the tree house that, as a child, he'd christened "The Fortress of Solitude."
Sure enough, there was the globe, sitting in its place of honor amongst the knick-knacks and mementos which were once the hoarded treasures of a young boy.
Then what was he holding in his hand?
Clark took the other globe from its perch and floated back down to his parents and Lois. They stared at the two globes that he held, one in each hand.
As if sensing each other's presence, the two globes suddenly flickered to life. Warmth seeped from them into Clark's hands, and light seemed to dance between them. Then, there was an explosion of light, and the image of Jor-El took shape.
It was a life-sized image, giving the impression that he was actually standing among them. For Lois and his parents, who had never seen the globe's images, the sight of him was a startling new experience. Clark himself was somewhat taken aback.
"So, my son," the image spoke, "At last, you have been told the truth. Now, that you may see and know both of us in our true forms..." The image shimmered, and began to change. Gone was the grey-haired sage. In his place stood...himself?
Clark shook his head. No, it wasn't him, just as the globe wasn't his globe, but everyone around him gasped at the resemblance. Their features were almost exactly the same.
The doppelganger was pale and thin, however, and slightly bent as though standing upright without aid was a small challenge. Lines cut across his face, probably more than he should have had, and his black hair was lightly dusted with grey. "Here I am," said the wilting figure of a man. "Here is my true face, not an idealistic mirage." He smiled ruefully. "I hope my appearance does not frighten you, Kal-El."
"I know that this is a harsh truth to learn," the figure continued cryptically, "and we cannot ask for your forgiveness. All I ask is that you not be hard on your mother. It has surely taken much courage for her to finally talk to you---courage I never doubted for a second." A brief smile flashed across his face, and then his expression became serious. "What we did was inexcusable, but there was no alternative. I have replayed scenario after scenario in my mind, but to no avail. There is nothing else we could have done that would have ensured your life and prosperity. Krypton is a more rigid society than yours appears to be, and the offspring of an unmarried couple would be unwelcome."
Un---what? Clark stumbled backwards. He was dimly aware of hands reaching out to steady him, and soft buzzing voices, but his eyes stayed riveted to the image of the man who called himself Jor-El.
"That, my son, is why we had to send you here, and why we could not allow you to return to us. Your life on Krypton was forfeited, because of our misdeeds and recklessness." He sighed despondently.
Clark only stared at the image in disbelief.
"I wish I could be there with the two of you now," he continued, shifting his weight as though in a feeble attempt to stand straighter, "to help answer your questions, to abet your mother's explanations, to bear some of your anger and confusion." A short but violent cough erupted from him. "I don't know how you are taking this news," he said once he could speak clearly again, "But you need to know that you are not alone; you are not anomalous in this universe. Your biology, your family, your cultural history---these are now open books to you. My son, we give you back your inheritance." He coughed again. "I must---hurry... But let me say this one thing."
Jor-EL drew in a deep breath. "I have not told anyone this, not even my beloved Lara. It was years ago, shortly after..." His expression became one of deep sorrow. The image wavered momentarily. "Please forgive me. It was years ago, shortly after Lara's failure. I found myself speaking to Respectable Lor-Van. He expressed great love and sympathy for his daughter, and then began to speak oddly. He looked into my eyes and told me---that her happiness meant more to him than ideals. It was then I knew that we had been discovered in our lies." He shook his head and sighed. "He said nothing; I said nothing. Afterwards, I spent years trying to design a ship that could carry us back to you, but the fuel crystals are too rare. The best I could do was design a craft to carry one person."
The image began to flicker. "All that we could, we have given you, Kal-El: a life here on Earth, and now, at last, the truth. You are not alone."
Jor-El vanished. There was no trace of anything having ever happened, except for the stunned expressions on the faces of Clark and those around him. The wind whistled through the grass, and gently stirred the branches of the tree in which his fortress stood. Somewhere, a chicken was clucking and generally making noise.
Earth. Solid Earth.
He let the globes fall from his hands. They hit the ground with soft thuds and rolled slightly away from him. It was as if their contact with the earth verified their existence---their reality.
Clark slumped to his knees.
"Clark!"
He could feel his mother's hands on his shoulders. He could feel Lois kneeling beside him--feel her arms wrapped around him. He could feel their confusion and disbelief---nowhere near as great as his own.
"I---" His throat felt tight. Why was it suddenly so hard to take a decent breath? "I'm a----"
They were shushing him. Telling him not to worry. Things might not be as they seemed. They did not know anything for sure.
The world slowly began to blur. "I'm a bastard."
**********
He just sat on the sofa, staring into nothing.
Lois shivered. She had never seen her husband like this before. The emptiness in his eyes scared her.
She brushed some of the hair back from his forehead. He didn't flinch or move. A cup of hot chocolate, brought in earlier by Martha, sat on the coffee table, getting cold.
Whoever that woman at the Planet was, Lois was going to kill her for what she did to Cl---
Oh...
Great...
Krypton.
<...All I ask is that you not be hard on your mother. It has surely taken much courage for her to finally talk to you...>
The words spoken by "Jor-El" echoed in her head, accompanied by a flashing image of the strange, dark-haired woman who had come looking for Superman.
It was her.
Lois gasped.
"What is it, Lois?" Martha was seated across the room, watching them closely. Jonathan stood next to her, looking far less certain of how to act. They had both tried so hard to comfort Clark---they had poured out their love, and done their best to make him feel accepted---but the shock was still too much for everybody, and no one knew quite what to do.
"Nothing," Lois started to say. Clark stirred, then, and looked up at her. Lois bit her lip.
"What?" he asked softly.
Lois thought for a few seconds, then released her lip and drew in a breath. "Clark, I think...If what the globe said was true, then that woman at the Planet was probably..." She trailed off, leaving him to fill in the blanks himself.
After a few moments, his eyebrows rose. He stared at her with a stunned expression on his face.
"What is it?" Martha asked, puzzled.
Clark slowly turned to face his parents. "My mother." He reached a hand up and raked it through his hair. He almost seemed to be shaking. "That...that woman was my mother."
Martha and Jonathan exchanged glances. "Son, you don't know that for sure."
Clark shook his head vehemently. "No. I'm sure. I---She...." He drew in a ragged breath. "She's my mother. She just has to be! But...why did she run off like that?" He whipped around towards Lois, and his expression was one of utter torment. "Why did she just run away from me like that? And if I'm such a damned disgrace to them, why did she even bother looking for me at all?"
A hush fell over the room. Clark never cursed, unless something was extremely wrong.
He turned away and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, burying his face in his hands. Streaks of water were barely visible on the sides of his face, stemming from the corners of his eyes.
Lois put a hand on his shoulder. "Clark..." she whispered.
He lowered his hands a little, swiping instinctively at the tears as he did so. "Do you have any idea what it was like not knowing who I was or where I came from?" He took in a shuddering breath. "Do you know what a relief it was when that globe first talked to me and told me about Krypton? About how I was saved from its destruction?"
Lois made no reply, but it didn't matter. He continued on.
"I thought that I was loved. Cared about. Now..." He shook his head. "I'm just an unwanted bastard."
"Clark, that's not true," Martha said from across the room. She stood up, crossed over to the sofa, and sat on the other side of Clark. "Honey, you're our baby, and we love you. Lois loves you too! It doesn't matter where you came from, or what happened in the past. You're our son."
"Your *mother* is right, son," Jonathan chimed in. "Your our boy. Nothing has changed."
Clark shook his head. "No, Dad. Everything has changed. My parents are alive." He stared into his father's eyes. "Krypton is alive." He bowed his head and sighed. "I just...have so many questions."
Lois wrapped her arm around him and pulled him close. "We'll find them, Clark. We'll look for them and find them, and ask them why they did what they did."
He closed his eyes. "It's no use," he murmured. They---she---could be anywhere."
**********
She thrashed under the covers of the small bed at the YMCA. The dream. She was having the dream again.
She stood in the center of a great room, the walls of which she could not see. A light shone on her, blinding her, but beyond, there was little more than shadows.
A voice boomed. "Will the accuser step forward."
From among the circle of people that surrounded her, a figure stood up. "Ladies and gentlemen, members of the great council..." He strode forward, crossing in front of the benches of the serious, glaring council members. They, and the crowd behind Lara, watched him intently. "This woman, Lara Jor-El, is a fallen woman, having committed crimes heinous beyond description! She is a disgrace to her family and society!"
The figure approached her and began slowly circling her, like a predator, while he stated the case to the council and the throng of on-lookers. "Premarital displays of affection," he spat venomously, "*sexual intercourse* , even having a child out of wedlock---"
The crowd stirred.
"Burn the tramp!"
"Kill her!"
"Strip her and throw her out into the street!"
The head of the council raised his hand for silence, and nodded to the accuser to continue speaking.
"Furthermore," the figure continued, sending her an icy glare, "This callous whore then broke the cardinal rules of motherhood, the very laws set by nature itself. She abandoned her own offspring!"
Lara cast her eyes downwards in shame. The crowd erupted into an uproar fiercer than the first.
"Even the animal kingdom behaves better than this," the accuser roared, now addressing her, "and then, as if you were somehow above the retribution for your crimes, you chose to lie and live as an 'honorable woman'. You liar."
"Disgusting," whispered one of the council members.
"You're a filthy liar. And isn't it true that you would have lied if your second child had lived. You would have lied and said that he was your first born. Wouldn't you!"
He turned to face her fully. As always, her accuser's face was obscured by shadow, even though she knew exactly who he was supposed to be.
"You would have given him the first-born's inheritance."
Now, though, he stepped into the light, and for the first time in her life, she saw his features clearly.
Kal-El stood before her, his eyes burning with fury, his lips curled into a snarl.
"You would have given him *MY* inheritance!"
He thrust out a finger at her. "THAT is why your child died!"
Lara felt herself tremble...felt the tears begin to fall. The crowd behind her grew larger. Louder. More violent. The council members seemed to rise up until they towered over her like giants.
"That is why your child died," Kal-El repeated, glaring at her viciously. "It was Rao's judgment! You, Lara Jor-El, are unfit to be a mother!"
The shadows threatened to overwhelm her. The hateful cries of the crowd and the council members seemed to overlap and mesh together until they sounded like the roar of the sea.
"And there is the evidence right there," he announced, still pointing at her.
Lara looked down. On her dress.
Blood.
Not again...
Everywhere...so much blood...
It ran down her legs...everywhere...pain making her scream....
Lara thought she was going to be sick. She covered her mouth with her hand and staggered, trying to keep her balance.
Through the red haze, Kal-El's eyes burned into her. "Unfit to live!"
The crowd rushed forward. A pit had opened up in front of her, and they pushed her into it.
Now she was falling, down and down through the reddish blackness.
Idly, she wondered where Jor-El would be this time.
Sometimes, he was leaning over the edge of the pit, arm outstretched, calling her name as he vainly tried to reach her.
Other times, he was already waiting for her at the bottom.
**
Lara startled awake. Her eyes opened to blackness as dark as when they'd been closed, and it took a while for them to adjust. She had the sensation of floating in space...
Just as the outlines of the room began to take shape, she suddenly fell through air and landed with a hard 'Whupth!' on the mattress.
A shaggy figure on the next bed over peered at her through the dimness. It took a swig from something she couldn't quite identify, then rolled over and resumed its sleep, cradling the object like a loved one.
All the others in the long room were also unconscious.
Lara's heart was still pounding. As she scanned the rows of beds, she realized that she would simply not be able to return to sleep. Her body was awake, alert, and completely untired. Also, her dreams loomed behind her like a vicious and ugly monster lying in wait for her, thus removing what little incentive she had to even try to go back to sleep.
After lying awake for a while, Lara stood up and quietly left the shelter.
The dark streets were lined with primitive lanterns on poles, many of which were cracked and broken. Glowing symbols and squiggles adorned the sides of buildings. Some of the city's nocturnal residents gave her ugly looks as she passed by, but for the most part she ignored them.
She found her way to the laboratory easily enough. There was a sign of some sort posted on the main door, and only a few windows were lit. She decided not to try to enter, and sat on the steps to wait for Dr. Bernard-Klein.
She did not know exactly how much time passed, though she almost dozed off twice. Eventually, the sky took on a pale gray color.
When the grey started to yield to light blue, a loud rumbling and roaring metal thing with two wheels rolled up the street and stopped a few feet in front of her and the building. It was being ridden by---most likely a person, since she had not seen any decent robots on this planet so far---wearing a hard hood of some sort over its head.
The noise stopped, and the person dismounted the machine and walked directly up to her.
"Lara?" the person queried somewhat muffledly. He removed his hood, revealing the face of none other than Dr. Bernard-Klein.
Lara stood and gave the scientist a nod of greeting.
He stood in front of her and cocked his head, perplexed. "What are you doing here so early? Why aren't you at the shelter?"
"Please forgive me," she said sheepishly, and proceeded to explain that she could not sleep, though of course, she omitted the reason why.
Bernard-Klein's eyebrows raised sharply, and his face took on a somewhat startled expression. "You came here alone? On foot?!"
Lara blinked in confusion. "Is this---wrong?"
He closed his eyes and shook his head, then looked at her and lightly reached out a hand and touched her shoulder. "Lara, I don't know where you're from, but here, you can't just go walking around by yourself at night. Especially if you're a woman!"
Lara absorbed this information.
Dr. Bernard-Klein then let his hand fall back to his side and turned to shepherd her up the steps. "Just be glad this isn't Gotham. Come on inside."
**********
TBC
