Previously on Soul Desire:
Clark stopped briefly once he'd gone as high as he desired. He let the healing rays of the sun soak into his skin after expending so much energy in the utter darkness. Feeling recharged, he oriented himself in the general direction of Norway. At first, he went at a reasonably slow pace, allowing Hercules to get more comfortable.
"You okay?" he asked, shooting a glance to his passenger.
Hercules nodded. "Just fine," he answered truthfully. "I think I'm getting used to this. I can see why you like flying."
"It's always been one of my favorite things," Clark admitted. "As wonderful as my strength and speed and the rest of my powers can be, I could live without them. But I don't think I could ever be whole again if I couldn't fly."
"What about your children? Can they fly too?" Hercules asked, genuinely curious.
"They're still a bit young," Clark said. "Their powers are only just developing now. And only half of their DNA is Kryptonian. So there's still a lot that we just don't know yet. But my secret hope is that all three of them do inherit the ability to fly. There's nothing quite like it. The peace of mind it can bring. The feeling of freedom."
"Not to mention all the money you can save on gas," Hercules joked.
Clark laughed. "All part of the perks," he agreed with an amused smile. "But in all seriousness, I hope they can experience what I do when I fly." Clark picked up some speed, tearing through a bank of clouds like a bullet.
Both men grew silent, each now occupied with their own thoughts. Using his telescope vision, Clark kept tabs on various landmarks as they slid past, miles beneath them. He increased his speed again, using thermals and air currents, and avoiding a storm or two as he raced along. A glance at the sun when they'd emerged from the polar cavern had told him that more time had passed than he would have liked. He hoped to make up some of that lost time as he flew. He had the nagging sense that the easiest of the challenges now lay behind them, and he worried about what they might find in the other resting places of the stone shards.
**********
Lois paced her living room, aware of the ancient heroes eyeing her every movement. It was ridiculous, she reasoned to herself. Clark had only been gone two hours. Two long, nerve-wracking hours. She wondered if he and Hercules had retrieved any of the pieces of the Stone of Creation yet. She also wondered what sort of challenges might face them in each of the locations. She had seen enough action movies for her vivid imagination to run absolutely wild. She kept picturing the scene from Indiana Jones when the giant boulder was released and nearly crushed poor Indy. She kept picturing the scene in The Mummy when the salt acid melted off the faces of the workers who dared to open the stone where the Book of the Dead was hidden. Not that either of those situations could possibly harm her invulnerable husband. But she worried nonetheless. And Hercules still had mortal blood in his veins. A booby trap could prove fatal for the demigod.
Eventually, she decided pacing wasn't doing any good. It wouldn't stop her mind from envisioning every sordid possibility of things that the two men might encounter. And it certainly wouldn't help Clark and Hercules accomplish their mission any faster. All it would do would be to wear a hole in the carpeting. At last, she stilled her movements and sat heavily on the couch.
"Sorry," she apologized to her friends. "I know my pacing isn't helping things."
"We understand," Iolaus assured her. "But Clark's in good hands. Herc's the best person in the world to get him safely though labyrinths designed by the gods."
"I'm sure that he is. But I'm actually worried about them both," Lois calmly admitted.
"Herc will be fine," Iolaus insisted. "He and I have faced a ton of monsters and warlords and gods and...well, you name it."
Lois chuckled lightly, despite herself. "Clark and I have faced our fair share of dangers too. He'll keep Hercules safe. I just hate not being able to do anything."
"I know what you mean," Iolaus said with a conspiratorial grin. "It's killing me to know that I have a limited amount of time left back in the world of the living and I can't even go on a good old-fashioned quest with my best friend."
"You and me both," Xena said, not looking up from where she sat inspecting the blade of her sword.
Iolaus' stomach rumbled loudly. He covered it with an embarrassed hand, then smiled self-consciously.
"Oops," he said. "Sorry."
Lois laughed, a genuine, heartfelt laugh. In the short time that she'd known Iolaus, she'd come to like the short blonde man. She wished that he had been around the last time she'd entrusted herself to the care of Xena and Gabrielle. Iolaus' light heart and quickness to laughter had a way of easing some of her tension. In a way, she thought, Iolaus was a lot like Clark in that respect.
"I guess that's my cue to get lunch ready," she said.
"Nah, you don't have to," Iolaus said, with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Iolaus could eat his own weight in food each day, if you let him," Xena teased with a smirk, as she set her weapon aside.
Iolaus laughed. "Hey, I happen to have a very high metabolism," he said, feigning hurt.
"It's no problem," Lois said, standing. "There's still some sandwiches left from last night. Just give me a few minutes."
With that, Lois disappeared from the room. In the quiet refuge of the kitchen, she set to work getting lunch together. This she could do. She had a task before her. She could force herself to only focus on the task at hand, blocking out all of the unpleasant thoughts bouncing around in her skull. The trick never failed her, and it did not disappoint this time either. A sense of calm overcame her as she worked. She piled a tray high with sandwiches, drinks, and condiments, then reentered the living room. Everyone mostly only picked at their food, though Iolaus managed to finish his entire hero.
They talked quietly, the topics jumping from one thing to another with no particular rhyme or reason. The ancient heroes plied Lois with questions about the year 2011. They seemed unable to fathom just how dramatically the world had changed, though they had gotten a small taste of it the previous day. Gabrielle kept asking about the "computer" that Lois had made a fleeting reference to. She seemed in awe of a machine that could cut down the time that it took to write, and which made it so easy to go back and correct mistakes or completely change the things a person wrote. Xena was more interested in how weapons had evolved over the years. She'd only gotten the briefest of looks at the gun that Tempus had wielded in a last ditch attempt to murder Clark on their last adventure together. Lois tried her best to explain a little of modern warfare, and Xena looked suitably impressed. Still, Lois could see from Xena's expression that the warrior woman was definitely partial to a good strong blade to fight battles with.
"Lois," Gabrielle said, after a slight lull had formed in the conversation, "would you mind...showing me this computer gizmo?"
Lois smiled. "Sure, let me go get it."
Lois stood and thought for a moment. So much had happened in less than twenty four hours. Where had she left her laptop? Mentally, she retraced her steps and remembered that she'd left it on the tabletop of the breakfast nook in the kitchen, where she and Clark had last been working their way through a stack of research. She swiftly retrieved the computer from beneath a stack of files and returned to the living room. She sat on the couch between Xena and Gabrielle, flipped open the lid, and pressed the power button. The machine was less than a month old and started up instantly. Gabrielle's eyes grew wide in fascination as the icons appeared on the screen.
"Okay, see this?" Lois held aloft a sleek black flash drive marked "2010/2011 DP Articles." "This little device is like a portable library. I can store hundreds of stories on this thing."
"Wow," Gabrielle breathed. "I always thought that scrolls were pretty convenient. To be able to store hundreds of scrolls worth of writing on something smaller than my finger..." She shook her head in disbelief.
Lois nodded. She slipped the drive into one of the USB ports and pulled up the files stored on the device. Gabrielle's eyes widened again when she saw the massive list of files build. Lois clicked onto the first one on the list, a grisly report on a string of murders that had taken place the week after New Year's Eve 2010. The file popped up instantly.
"By the gods," Gabrielle said in awe. "I wish this had existed in my time. And I really wish that I could read your language," she said regretfully.
"Would you like to see it in action?" Lois asked. "The computer, I mean. How it works when I write."
"Please," Gabrielle said with obvious delight.
Lois pulled up a blank Word document. She thought for a moment and then began to type. It wasn't anything special - just a brief description of the events that had happened in the last day. She dictated what she was writing, so that the bard could match the words on the screen to what they meant. Gabrielle watched with growing fascination as the words appeared rapid-fire on the screen, or disappeared just as quickly again when Lois choose to delete something. She purposefully misspelled some words to show off how the spellchecker worked. A few other times, she showed off the synonyms feature.
"That's incredible," Gabrielle decided. "This could have saved me hundreds of hours of tedious scrollwork! Having to labor over my wording before putting my quill to the parchment. Worrying if I would have enough space to finish my tale before the scroll ended. The gods themselves must have designed this thing."
Lois laughed. "Not gods. A company called Dell and man named Bill Gates. But they do seem to think that they are gods."
She deleted the document in its entirety. She was about to show Gabrielle the wonders of the internet when the phone began to ring. Lois stood and crossed the room to the phone. She grabbed up the receiver and held it to her ear.
"Hello? Oh, Perry, hi. No, Clark's not home right now. Uh, not exactly, Chief. Yes, I'm sorry that we didn't email you; a couple of personal things came up last night." She listened and sighed. "No, of course not, Perry. Kevin had to postpone the interview with us for the time being. No, I don't know when we'll be able to get it. He said he'd call us when things cleared up. No, he didn't say why. Well, because it wasn't my place to ask. Of course I trust him, Chief. After all, he's Her...hardly ever been known to lie to the press before. Didn't Clark give you the fluff piece on the twentieth annual Metropolis Rocky Horror Picture Show tribute? Can't you just run that instead? Okay, okay. The Germaine murder? Still at a standstill. Yes, Perry, I know. Okay, thanks. Yes, I promise. Bye."
She hung up the phone wearily. Age had not slowed down Perry one iota, nor had remarrying Alice softened him. He was still the toughest editor in the business. Maybe even worse now than he'd ever been in the past. But, truth be told, Lois wouldn't have it any other way. She dreaded the day when Perry would retire, though she was sure that he was grooming Jimmy for the position. For that, she was glad. Neither Clark nor she wanted the position of editor. They had both hated the toll it had taken on their marriage years prior, when Lois had briefly been promoted to the position after Perry himself had been promoted. The situation hadn't lasted more than a week or so until Perry stepped down and reclaimed his title of Chief, but it had been long enough. Neither of them ever wanted to be in a situation like that ever again.
"Great shades of Elvis," she muttered to herself, then grimaced when she realized that twenty some-odd years of working for Perry had made her pick up some his colloquialisms. She turned back to her friends. "Sorry, that was my boss. Clark and I were supposed to have interviewed Hercules about his new film before this whole soul-stealing thing came up."
Iolaus looked confused. "What was that?" He pointed at the phone. "It looked like you were talking to yourself."
Lois let slip a small laugh despite herself. "It's a...communication device," she decided on. "I pick up this end and I can talk to someone else on another end."
"Where's the other end?"
"Anywhere in the world."
"Huh," was all the man could say.
The phone rang again, before she could make a move back to the couch. Lois huffed a little, slightly annoyed. She picked up the receiver.
"Hello?" Her voiced softened a notch after a moment. "Hey, Jimmy, what's up? Really? That's fantastic. No, I can't swing by the Planet today. Can you fax it over? Thanks, you're a life safer. Uh-huh," she said excitedly. The fax machine began to beep as it spit out the papers that Jimmy was sending over. "Yep, they're coming through now. I owe you."
A pink flash in the room announced Aphrodite's arrival. Lois paled when she saw the goddess nervously biting her lower lip.
"Jimmy, I gotta go."
Lois didn't wait for his response. She hung up the phone once more. Butterflies took flight in her stomach. She faced the goddess and walked dazedly to the couch.
"This isn't good news, is it?" she asked as she sat down.
"Afraid not," the scantily clad love goddess replied. "I don't know how else to tell you this, but Alti's on the move. Or about to be."
"What do you mean?" Xena asked, her voice deadly serious.
"I finally tracked her down to some seedy, sleazy motel about an hour from here. I popped in on her. She couldn't see me, of course. But I learned some totally disturbing things while I was there. I still feel grody." She rubbed her bare arms and shivered for effect.
"Aphrodite, please," Xena pleaded. "Focus. A man's life is on the line. Could we get to the point?"
Aphrodite rolled her eyes dramatically. "I was getting there," she complained. "Anyway, basically, I think she knows about Clark."
Lois swallowed down the bile that had risen in her throat. "What?" she demanded, a bit more harshly than she'd meant to. After all, it wasn't the goddess' fault. She was only trying to help.
"I'm pretty sure that she knows that he and Superman are one and the same. Or at the very least, she definitely suspects that there may be more to their 'friendship' than meets the eye. She was doing some research on you guys from a laptop. She's got your address."
"What?" Lois asked, the coloring draining from her face.
"So she's coming after Lois after all," Iolaus surmised, jumping to his feet as though the battle were about to start.
"Not quite, Sweet Cheeks," she replied, shaking her head. Blonde curls bounced with the movement. "She was muttering to herself a lot while she gathered her info. She wants the kids."
"My children?" Lois repeated. "Why? I thought she wanted Clark's soul."
"Exactly," Xena said.
"Bait," Lois said, horrified, as the realization set in.
Xena nodded. "Probably. But it's more than just using them to draw Clark out into her trap." She pinched the bridge of her nose for a second as memories came flooding back. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before. How could I have forgotten?"
"What?" Lois asked.
"Dahak," Gabrielle said, by way of explanation. When Lois still looked confused, the bard continued. "The last time Xena and I dealt with Dahak, he was after the world's children." Gabrielle's voice was heavy with remembered pain. "Dahak hadn't quite made his way into the world yet, so he sent his daughter to do his dirty work. She teamed up with Xena's arch nemesis, Callisto. Together, they went after the centaur village where Xena's son, Solan, lived. She - Hope, that is - murdered Solan. We were able to stop Hope and Callisto, but the damage had already been done."
"I'm sorry," Lois heard herself say through the fog of fear that had suffused her brain. She shook her head, as if to clear her mind. "So, you're saying that she wants to kill my children?"
For a long moment, no one dared to move or answer. Finally, Xena gave her the tiniest of nods.
"Probably," she said quietly. "She'll use them as bait first. Once she has Clark, she won't have a reason to keep them alive."
"So what do we do?" Lois asked, resolve taking over her mind. "Meet her in battle?"
Xena's lips curved in a subdued half-smile. "Not quite. Where are your kids now?"
"With Clark's parents," Lois replied.
"Good. Tell them to get out of town. Tell them to get as far away from this city as possible. Tell them to take the kids someplace where they'd never go in a hundred years. And tell them not to contact you, just in case Alti figures out what's happened."
"Then what?" Lois asked. She clearly remembered that Xena's plans often consisted of multiple layers.
"Then I go after Alti," the warrior princess said.
"How?" Iolaus asked. "We can't kill her until Herc and Clark get back with the stone."
"She doesn't mean to fight Alti in the physical world," Gabrielle stated knowingly.
"Ah," Iolaus said, seeming to understand. His head bobbed as he nodded.
"Can someone buy me a vowel?" Lois asked, now completely confused.
"I'll put myself into the spirit world and fight Alti there. With Dahak on her side, I won't be able to kill her, but I might be able to wound her enough to buy Hercules and Clark the time that they need to get the stone. And to buy your kids some more time to get away."
"Is that a wise move? I mean, she'll be stronger with Dahak on her side, right?" Lois said, brushing her hair back behind her ear.
"She might be. But I don't see any other choice. Aphrodite, I want you keep an eye on the kids."
"On it," she replied, then flashed out of existence again.
"Xena, put me under too," Iolaus said.
And me," Gabrielle chimed in.
Xena nodded thoughtfully. "All right. But only because we stand a better chance if we combine our strength. Lois, contact Clark's parents."
Lois stood and crossed to the phone again. She picked up the phone and dialed with trembling fingers. On the third ring, Jonathan picked up.
"Jonathan, hi. I need to ask a huge favor of you. I don't have time to explain all of the details now, but the kids are in danger. I need you and Martha to take them as far away from Metropolis as you can. As soon as you can, throw things in a bag and get into the car. I think a woman is heading your way now. No, not there. Go someplace...unexpected. Don't call me and don't call Clark. I can't be sure that the woman who is after them won't uh...find a way to spy on any calls. When it's safe, we'll call you. Thanks. I will. Tell them I love them. Bye."
Lois hung up the phone and turned decisively towards Xena.
"Whatever you are going to do to them," she gestured to Gabrielle and Iolaus, "I want you to do to me."
"Lois, I don't think that's a good idea," Xena said.
"These are my children," Lois argued. "I have to do this. I refuse to just sit by if there's something I can do to help."
"I won't risk you. Just because we will be fighting in the spirit realm doesn't mean that Alti can't kill us."
"I would gladly lay down my life if it meant saving my kids."
"I know you would. But there is no reason why you need to put yourself in danger. The three of us can handle this."
Lois placed her hands on her hips, defiant. "Would you have stood by and let others take the risk for your son? Either you take me with you, or I find my own way of coming anyway. It's your choice. But I refuse to sit here and do nothing."
Xena nodded again. "All right." The warrior princess stood and cracked her knuckles. "When your spirit separates from your body, I want you to join with my spirit. As one, we stand our best chance of doing some serious damage to Alti. Are you ready?"
Everyone nodded. Lois set her jaw. Her children were in danger. And Lois was ready to go to hell and back again if that's what it would take to keep them safe. She had the passing thought that not even a mother bear protecting her cubs was more frightening than she was at the moment.
"I'll have to do this the quick way," Xena said, apologetically. "There's no time to do all of the ceremony and incantations that normally go into this. Everyone, sit on the floor."
When they were all seated on the floor, Xena knelt before them. She started with Iolaus. Quickly, she rammed the index and middle fingers of both of her hands into the sides of his neck. Lois remembered the move. She'd seen Xena use it against one of the thugs who had attacked them in ancient Greece when Clark was kidnapped by the gladiator traders. The move worked on a person's pressure points, and blocked off the flow of blood to the victim's brain. Before Lois could speak, Iolaus had collapsed and Xena was onto Gabrielle.
"What are you doing?" Lois demanded.
"Killing us," Xena replied as Gabrielle fell to one side.
In the next instant, the raven haired warrior jammed her fingers onto Lois' pressure points. Lois instantly felt a tightening in her neck muscles and a lightheadedness. She found it difficult to think and harder to breathe. She struggled against the pain that shot through her body. Blood flowed from her nostrils. She touched a hand to the blood, examined it without comprehending, then keeled over to one side, oblivious to her head striking the carpet.
To Be Continued...
