Lex Loses! Or... On Second Thoughts, I Can Fix This After All!“Lois!”
Lois blinked, feeling as if she was trying to see her way through a thick, impenetrable mist.
“Lois!” the voice called again.
Somehow, suddenly, she could open her eyes. The mist cleared, and she was looking at...
“Clark?” Puzzled, she peered at him. “Clark, why are you wearing that strange Spandex thing...?”
“Long story,” he said quickly, dismissively. “Lois, I need your help.”
“What’s happening?” she asked. Images were starting to shape in her head - strange, disjoined pictures and snatches of conversation...
“Lex had Superman prisoner!” she exclaimed suddenly, remembering. “He had a guillotine - he promised to let Superman go if I...” She broke off then as the remaining events came back to her. “But I pulled the lever! Why aren’t I dead?”
“I hate to break it to you, Lois, but you are dead,” Clark said wryly. “And so am I. Whatever he promised you, he didn’t keep his word.”
Lois frowned again. This didn’t make sense. “You’re... dead?”
“Lois, I’m Superman,” Clark told her. “Or, at least, I was... until Luthor killed me. He used Kryptonite, judging by that green stuff over there.”
“You’re Sup...” Lois trailed off, thoroughly baffled by all these revelations. Clark was Superman? Superman was Clark? The man who’d been immobilised, rendered unconscious, by Kryptonite had been Clark?
But... wait a minute...
“If I’m dead - if *we’re* dead - how can we be having this conversation?”
Clark shrugged. “It’s October 31. Hallowe’en. Seems we’re ghosts, and this is the one day in the year when we’re allowed to materialise.”
Lois collapsed back onto a barrel which lay behind her - she’d just realised that they were back in Luthor’s basement - only to find that she fell right through it.
Clark was right. They were ghosts.
She took a deep breath, or what felt like a breath, anyway. This was a lot to come to terms with - but right now she was filled with anger.
Lex Luthor had killed them both. He had taken away what was most precious to them - their lives. And the chance to discover what they could have had together. For she’d remembered one other thing: that one of the main reasons she’d rejected Luthor’s proposal was that she’d finally realised that she had feelings - tender feelings, maybe even loving feelings - for her best friend. For Clark.
“Okay,” she said grimly, furiously. “If we’re ghosts, I want to go and haunt Luthor. Scare him to death!”
But Clark shook his head. “I have to admit, the thought appeals to me. But we might only have today - until midnight tonight. Remember, tomorrow’s All Souls Day. And I think a far better use of our time would be to find the evidence we need to prove Luthor guilty once and for all - not just for our murders, but for everything else he did, including destroying the Daily Planet. We can leave whatever we find for Inspector Henderson if we can’t find Perry.”
Lois nodded. “Sounds like an excellent idea.”
“Good,” Clark said. “After I woke up earlier, I did a quick scout around before I came back to look for you. Luthor’s office is on the top floor - and now we can move through solid objects I don’t even need to fly you up there. Ready to go?”
“In just a minute,” Lois said. She picked herself up and moved over to Clark. “If we only have today, I don’t want to waste any more time...”
“I don’t understand.”
“This,” she said, raising herself on tip-toes and suddenly discovered that she could float. Sliding her arms around Clark’s neck, she kissed him soundly.
*********
A few hours later, the two ghosts sat surrounded by piles of paper. They had evidence concerning Luthor’s role in the sabotage of the Messenger and associated murders, the heat-wave which had affected Metropolis almost a year before, the funding of the pheromone compound, assorted other murders, frauds, multiple incidents of blackmail, letters persuading the Planet shareholders to sell to Luthor, the Planet bombing and also documents relating to the insurance payout.
Luthor had a series of highly incriminating files, locked in a secret safe which would have been invisible to mortal eyes but which the ghosts of Lois and Clark found it easy to discover. There was one file for every person whose murder he had ordered, or which he’d carried out himself. The most recent files were concerning Lois and Superman, and included newspaper coverage of their disappearance and their ultimate supposed death.
Their task had been difficult at first owing to their inability to grasp solid objects, but they’d discovered after a while that if they concentrated hard enough they were able to do it. And by now it had become easy. They were even able to sit on Luthor’s study chairs to complete their task - the man himself, they’d discovered, was out at a business meeting, followed by dinner.
“We’ve got him,” Lois said triumphantly, placing the last document in place. “He’ll never get out of jail once Henderson’s through with this lot.
“Definitely,” Clark said, but he almost had to feign delight.
He’d expected to feel a sense of satisfaction once they’d got the evidence they needed. He’d expected to feel that his need for revenge was fulfilled. Luthor might have succeeded in killing him and Lois, but he wouldn’t get away with it.
But the problem was that Luthor *had* still won. Even if he went to prison for the rest of his life, he’d still managed to end *their* lives. They might have managed to put a stop to the man’s criminal acts, but Luthor had the last laugh.
Lois Lane and Clark Kent were dead. No matter what else they did on this day when they were free to move around as ghosts, they would never have a life together. They would never even have lives separately - not any more.
“Clark,” Lois said softly. He could hear a catch in her voice.
“Yes?”
She sighed. “It’s just so unfair! I - you know I’ve been so stupid. Ignoring you. Falling head over heels for Superman. Flirting with Lex Luthor - even if I did turn down his proposal. And all the time... If I’d had any sense at all, we could have been together, Clark. And now it’s too late.”
He looked up to see her wipe away a tear.
“It’s not too late,” he said, but he knew that he lied. “Come here.”
Pulling her into his arms, he hugged her tightly. “I love you, Lois. I’ve always loved you. And right now I don’t care whether it was Clark or Superman you loved most - I’m both of them anyway. And I *know* you loved Superman. You killed yourself to save me, didn’t you?”
Lois nodded against his chest.
He tipped up her chin and kissed her with all the passion he’d kept submerged for as long as he’d known her.
********
“Hey! What are you guys doing? Can we help?”
Lois had been kissing Clark, idly wondering whether it was possible for ghosts to make love, when their enjoyment was suddenly interrupted by female voices.
She looked up, dragging her attention away from Clark - and saw Miranda and two other women, whose faces she recognised as Ariana Carlin and Melanie, hovering in the doorway. Her jaw dropped. Then she realised that they had to be ghosts too.
She quickly introduced Clark to them - as Superman, she decided, since he was wearing the Spandex. He thought for a moment, then came up with an idea.
“Luthor should be due back any minute. How about you three go and see if you can haunt him? He deserves the fright of his life. And Lois and I need to get these papers to the police.”
“Sure,” Ariana agreed. “That rat deserves everything he’s got coming to him!”
Lois and Clark gathered up the documents between them and, bidding farewell to the other three victims of Luthor, headed out of the building. She realised, as they left, that she had no idea if the living could see or hear them - but they were about to find out.
At the police precinct, no-one even glanced at them as they entered. That answered her question, Lois thought; they were invisible.
“Henderson’s office is here,” Clark said. And Lois noticed a couple of people turning their heads, looking puzzled, and then getting on with whatever they were doing. They could be heard.
“Henderson!” she called, entering the small office.
The detective looked up, puzzled. He frowned, then turned back to the papers on his desk.
“Henderson!”
He looked up again, then scratched his head. “I could’ve sworn... Sounded exactly like Lois Lane...”
“It *is* Lois, you dumb excuse for a cop!” she exclaimed.
“Now *that* sounds exactly like Lois!” he muttered.
“Well, maybe you’re not so dumb after all,” she retorted. She gestured to Clark, and he dropped the papers on Henderson’s desk. “Here,” she said. “Take a look at these. There should be more than enough here to put Lex Luthor away for at least a couple of millennia.”
Henderson looked at the pile of papers in disbelief. “Now where in the heck...”
“Bill,” Clark said firmly. “Believe it or not, but Lois and I are here. We’re ghosts. Lex Luthor killed us both. And we’ve come to make sure that he pays for it.”
Henderson inhaled sharply and sat back in his chair in a sudden movement. “Superman?”
“Yes,” Clark said, deepening his voice, Lois noticed. “He killed us both back in May. It’s all documented in those files - he kept records of everything.”
“Give me an hour or so to look through this stuff, and I promise you I’ll have a warrant out for his arrest. He’ll be in custody before morning.”
Clark nodded. “We don’t have that long - my guess is we’ll disappear again at midnight. But thanks.”
“Thank you,” Henderson said emphatically. “And... uh... you guys are missed, you know? I even miss you, Lane,” he added dryly.
“Guess I definitely must be dead,” Lois said to Clark. “I seem to remember Henderson telling me a couple of years ago that he’d admit to caring about me over my dead body...”
Henderson looked straight at her, and she wondered whether he could actually see her now. “Lois, there’s not a reporter in the city who even comes close to you when it comes to reporting crime and policing critically and fairly - let alone getting to the bottom of cases which are defeating the cops. Yeah, I miss you. And that partner of yours - whatever happened to him?”
Unable to answer, Lois just shrugged.
“Yeah, well,” Henderson continued. “The Planet’s certainly not the same without you two.”
“The Planet?” Clark asked incredulously. “That was destroyed -”
“Perry White persuaded Franklin Stern to put together a financial package and buy the premises and rights to the name from the paper’s insurers. They reopened last August,” Henderson explained.
“That’s great,” Lois said softly. “Metropolis just wasn’t the same without the Planet. Look, Henderson,” she added, “You make sure you give Perry the exclusive on Luthor’s arrest, you hear?”
The inspector nodded. “I’ll do that. I won’t tell him about you being here, though - he’ll never believe me.”
“I guess not,” she said quietly, regretfully, then allowed Clark to lead her out of the room.
*********
They’d done what they had to do, and it was almost ten-thirty. If they only had an hour and a half left, Clark wanted to spend it with Lois. But he didn’t know where they could go. Both of their apartments were, no doubt, occupied by new tenants.
He didn’t particularly want to go back to Luthor’s building. And then he had a thought: they could go to the Planet. So he wrapped his arm around Lois’s shoulder and hurried her onwards.
They had to pass close by Luthor’s headquarters. And as they did, a terrified voice became audible.
“No! Go away! Leave me alone!”
And women’s voices shouted in response, “Murderer!”
“You deserve everything you get!”
“I’ll haunt you for all eternity!”
Clark felt Lois stiffen. Then, suddenly, she broke from his grasp and shot upwards. He could only watch as she joined the other three women tormenting Luthor.
“You robbed me of the best years of my life!” Lois screamed. “You killed the man I love! Bastard!”
They had chased Luthor out onto the balcony of his penthouse. He was backing away, terrified, as his tormentors hovered around him, screaming and moaning.
“No!” he yelled. “Go away! Stop it! Nigel! Help!”
And then, suddenly, he backed away one step too far.
With a loud scream, he tumbled backwards off the balcony and tumbled, flailing, towards the ground.
Instinct compelled Clark to dart upwards, his arms reaching out to save his arch-enemy. But he could only stare in horror as Luthor fell straight through him, like a plane passing through a cloud.
In a matter of seconds, it was all over. Lex Luthor was dead.
********
“I can’t be sorry that he’s dead, you know?” Lois said to Clark as they carried on down the street, his arm about her shoulders again.
“I know,” he said wryly. “If anyone deserved to die...”
“But that still doesn’t help us,” she said sadly. “We’ve got - what? About an hour together before we disappear again? And with no guarantee that we’ll even see each other ever again.”
“I know.” His voice was heavy. “Lois, I want you to know that even if this is the last time we see each other, I will love you for all eternity.”
“And I you,” she promised, tears now threatening. “Clark, I’m so sorry that I was so stupid - that I never paid you any attention -”
“Wait!” he exclaimed, interrupting her. He’d stopped at a dispenser containing copies of that day’s Daily Planet. “What the...?”
She looked at him questioningly. With a deft movement, he managed to open the box and remove a copy of the paper. The headline read Dead Gangsters Cloned By Scientist.
“What -?” she began, but Clark hushed her. He was feverishly scanning the front-page story, flicking through the paper to find the inside page where it continued. Then he dropped the paper back on top of the box and seized her hand, an excited look on his face.
“Lois! We’ve got a chance after all! This scientist - Hamilton - the article says that it’s suspected that he managed to resurrect some gangsters from the 1920s. Bonnie and Clyde and Al Capone. And the police think he did it by using their DNA!”
“So?” Lois asked, frowning.
“Well, if he can use DNA that’s eight decades old to bring Al Capone back to life, why can’t he use *our* DNA to resurrect us?” Clark demanded, his face alight.
Hope filled Lois’s heart. To be alive again. To be working at the Daily Planet once more, with Clark as her partner. To be with Clark - to be his friend, his girlfriend and even his lover.
To be able to grow old with the man she loved.
“What are we waiting for?” she exclaimed. “Let’s get that DNA and find Hamilton!”
Clark hugged her fiercely. “I can’t wait. This *has* to work!”
She nodded, then kissed Clark again. “Luthor is dead. Long live Lane and Kent!”
~ The End ~
Note: Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I've played around with the timeline just a touch here, but I hope you'll forgive me! 
