A great tempest was about to erupt and nobody noticed the man in the bowler hat fiddling with the tiny electronic ring he wore. With hardly a sound, the man vanished.
The four of them looked at the empty space where he had been, all feeling some sense of panic and guilt for not being quick enough to stop him, or generous enough to let the invulnerable ones go handle the job.
"He's just ... committed suicide" said Lois, terrified on behalf on the man. She better than anyone knew the kind of treatment he would receive were he caught, especially if Kal-El was the clone, and had something to hide.
Before anyone could react to what she said, Herb reappeared in exactly the same location he had been earlier. His entire body was trembling with the excitement of discovery.
"Lord Kal-El is the clone," he said before anyone could yell at him for taking the initiative.
Lois felt like someone had kicked her in the stomach. Hot tears sprang to her eyes. Somehow knowing that Lord Kal had been a pretender to the Kryptonian throne made the whole reality of what she endured seem even more pointless and horrifying – despite the fact that it really made no actual difference.
Clark on the other hand wore an expression of relief at the feeling that a large and painful burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He looked at Kent and saw Kent was equally moved.
"He's not us," said Clark.
"He was never you," asserted Lois emotionally. “Are you sure, Herb? Are you sure you were in the proximity of Lord Kal and not the clone?"
"The man I was near was Lord Kal. Of that I am sure," he said, not wanting to go into detail. He had popped in during a grim moment between Kal and a human slave... one that was surely getting worse. He hated himself for not being able to save the victim, but he knew that to do so would have resulted in his own death and halted any possibility of anyone going in and fixing that world.
"What's wrong," Kent asked him, seeing the darkness in the other man's eyes. Herb looked over at him and shuddered.
"He wasn't alone" Herb said, his tone horrified.
"What… " Lane halted her question almost as soon as she had begun.
"A woman...?" This time it was Lois who asked, only her tone was cold and hard.
"Ah... Yes."
"We have to go save her," said Kent with sudden agitation. "If we can go there now and get her out of there - we can rescue her. We can find a way to bring her to safety -"
"And reveal your existence," said Lois. “You can’t do this. You can’t save her.”
"She's in trouble. Someone is suffering right now and we could stop it!"
"And then what? What do you think Kal-El would do if she vanished out of the room,” Lois countered harshly, hating herself both for condemning a woman to horrors she herself had endured, and then what surely would be an equally horrible death.
"We could go, wait for him to leave the room and get her out of there,” Kent persisted, not quite understanding her point.
"And what? Bring her here? Or take her to the resistance? You have to understand, if you rescue her, he will be angry and he will be that much more violent with his next victim. You can't save the one... we have to have a - " Lois trailed off in horror as she realized she was actually proposing that they form a plan of attack. "We can't do anything about that world, you know that.”
"But I have to," said Herb. "I have ... a moral duty. To true love, and soul mates and Utopia and a better way of life -"
"There's no way in hell that that universe's Lois will ever hook up with that universe's Kal-El," Lois snapped at Herb. "This isn't some happy fairy land where everything is sunshine and flowers. Kryptonians have damaged that world and its people for a long time. That world’s Lois has been brutalized. She knows only a world that's under the rule of a dangerous and despotic people. I was able to get past what happened because I came back to my normal world where the only Kryptonian here was such a tremendously good person, and even that was a difficult and unlikely journey! Even if she can see that he too was a victim, she will never be able to rest easy in his presence.”
"Lois is right," said Lane. "Not to mention the other Kal-El wasn't raised on earth. Who knows what his motivations will actually be? He might not be a vicious psycho, but he very well could be someone who doesn't see Kryptonian presence on Earth as a bad thing. Like Trey, for example, in our world," she said to her husband.
"I understand," said Herb, "I am not at all diminishing the truth of what you say. I believe that you are very likely correct in your future projections concerning that world's Lois and Cl - Kal. But I have to go do this. I have to," his voice was impassioned. "I have to try. They deserve that chance. When it works out and soul-mates unite - it is an amazing and rare thing. I have to try. I can't force them together but I can at least help make it possible. I couldn't live with myself if I didn’t do something about it."
"I am sorry to say this. But you are human," said Clark bluntly. "They are Kryptonians. You don’t stand a chance against them.”
"I can go work with the resistance from the inside."
"Seems a dangerous trick to me," said Lane. "The humans in the resistance are not going to be friendly. They will suspect your motivations. If the Kryptonians don’t kill you, the humans probably will.”
"Ching and Zara worked with me to rescue Lois," said Herb. "They believed I was a dimensional traveler and that I was going to bring her back where she belonged."
Lois blinked at that. Zara had saved her. Ching had saved her. She had hated Ching for so long for what he had done and she was never sure what to feel about Zara, the quiet phantom consort who never said anything to anyone unless spoken to first. Once she had thought it was snobbery - an unwillingness to look at human filth, but as time had passed she had grown to see it for what it was... shared misery and fear of making things worse for Lois.
"What's your game plan going to be," Kent asked Herb anxiously. "I still can't bear the idea that someone is suffering right now and we aren't doing anything to help her."
"I need to learn about the original Lord Kal. What was he like? If he's not a good man, then moving forward with rescuing him might not be a good idea."
"Ching and Zara might know those answers," said Kent. "They might well have grown up together until Kal was old enough to be trained for his duties as first lord."
Clark looked at him questioningly.
"I got a crash course in all that when they came to our world,” Kent offered up awkwardly.
"My god, what if they ever come here," said Lois.
"If they do, you come get us," said Kent. "I'll help you fight them off. In my world Ching was... dubious, but in the end, loyal to his duty - and he was a man of some type of honor. Zara was an honorable person. She did things that were dangerous and distasteful, but she proved to me that ultimately she was perfect to be ruler of new krypton."
"And if that world's Ching and Zara helped rescue Lois," said Lane, "I'm willing to bet -"
"What are you willing to bet," snapped Lois.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Are you willing to bet your life? What about your freedom?"
"Lois, I only meant -"
"Every single Kryptonian in that world is dangerous until proven otherwise. Joining a resistance, helping out a human or two does not a saint make.”
"But they are our best bet for information," said Kent carefully. "We can ask them about Kal-El and find out if he seemed a decent person back in the day. "
"And once I know whether he's a decent sort," said Herb, "I will reveal to them what I know. Then the resistance and I can collectively launch a movement to free him. Once he's freed, he needs to assert himself as first lord - I'm guessing the clone's DNA will be slightly degraded from the original so that he can prove he’s the original. I'm not a geneticist, but it seems within the realm of possibility."
"I feel I should be helping," said Kent. "I mean... you can't do this alone."
"They'll take one look at you and throw whatever anti-Kryptonian arsenals they have at their command," said Lane. "You know that. If you went, you'd have to send me first to lay down groundwork."
"My god...you're all insane," said Lois angrily. "Seriously? You think it's that easy? Their leader is a rapist and a sadist. He sees you, Lois, and you think you're going to talk your way out of danger? No! And you, Herb... he'll keep you alive ... but you'll wish you were dead. That world is like nothing you've ever endured and you’re talking about going in, chatting up the locals and rescuing the original Kal as if it were a walk through the park. What is wrong with you all?"
Silence met her announcement. None of the others in the room could begin to argue her points and they were all ashamed at making her feel like they belittled the danger in that other world.
"What if we were to bring some of the locals, as you call them, here," asked Herb.
"Like who?"
"Zara and Ching . If we can bring them here and explain our theory and get some more information, we'll be safe, and they won't be harmed either. They will also get a chance to see that there are variations of Kal-El that aren't dangerous."
"It took me forever to get to that point," said Lois. "Do you really think an hour will do it for them?"
"Maybe not... but it's better than trying to establish a campaign to free Kal-El in their territory without their help."
Lois started crying.
"You have no idea how badly this makes me feel. Even seeing them ... Ching's the one who enslaved me after I got to that world. It was his fault I was ever a prisoner. I can’t do this."
“You can’t do this to her,” both Clark’s said simultaneously, each feeling rage at hearing the details of her initial capture.
"I'm not asking anyone here to do anything, Herb insisted gently. "Least of all you. You have suffered so much and I’d never want to make you suffer more. I’ll do this without involving the four of you any further.”
“But then you won’t have the credibility offered by seeing how the four of us live,” Lois said, trying to get her fear and anger under control. “Bringing them here and having them interact with us is probably the safest and most direct way to getting the information you need to proceed.” She paused. “If Kal-El was originally a decent man and you can convince that resistance to free him, that world will be immeasurably improved. I can’t stand in the way of your first step.”
"Do you think you could just bring Zara," asked Kent.
"I could try. I'm not sure how easy it would be to get her alone."
"Then try," said Lois, having forced herself back to calm. "If you can't, you can't... I understand that. But I'd prefer it if she came alone."
Herb nodded.
"If I have all of your agreement, then, I'll go bring her here now."
He looked around the room patiently, and upon receiving nervous nods all around, he vanished from view once again.
