Previously on Soul Desire:
Grimly satisfied, Clark raced back to Hercules' side. He knelt beside his companion. Hercules was still coughing and gasping for air.
"Are you all right?" Clark asked, putting a hand to the man's shoulder.
"Peachy," Hercules choked out with a nod. "The statues?"
"Destroyed," Clark confirmed.
"Good," Hercules wheezed. "Let's get out of here."
"First things first," Clark said gently. "Here, let me see your arm."
Hercules gingerly lifted his injured limb for Clark's inspection. The arm and hand were a mass of blood, but Clark could easily see each of the wounds where Sobek's teeth had punctured the demigod's skin. He quickly x-rayed the limb, and was relieved to see that it wasn't broken as well.
"We need to stop the bleeding," Clark said.
"No time," Hercules said. He made to tear the waist of his shirt as a makeshift bandage.
"Wait," Clark said. "I can help. This might sting a little though."
With quick darts of his heat vision, Clark swiftly cauterized each of the demigod's wounds. Hercules clenched his teeth against the pain and discomfort, but to his credit, he did not cry out. When Clark had finished, Hercules inspected his handiwork.
"Not bad," Hercules said approvingly, flexing the arm.
"Now we can go," Clark said with a grin.
*************
It was late when Clark and Hercules finally flew back in through the living room window. Lois was half dozing on the couch while Xena, Gabrielle and Iolaus sat playing a heated game of poker. As the familiar whoosh heralded their arrival, Lois was instantly awake again. Clark gently lowered Hercules out of his arms. In a heartbeat, Lois was at Clark's side, all of her pent up fear melting away when she realized that both men were okay. She stretched up on her toes and kissed her husband, needing to feel him.
"What happened to you?" she asked them both when she pulled away, noting the various smudges and stains on their clothing, the dust in their hair, and the dried blood on Hercules' forearm.
"You don't want to know," Hercules said wearily.
"Of course I do," she quipped.
"I'll tell you later," Clark promised her. "Let's just say for now that it wasn't pretty out there. What happened to your neck?" He took a double take as he realized that she and the others all bore red marks on their necks. "All of you?"
Lois shooed away his concern. "We had a bit of an adventure of our own while you two were out. Why don't you guys go get cleaned up? We can swap stories afterwards."
Clark nodded hesitantly. He recognized the tone in her voice. Arguing with her wouldn't yield any results. And she was definitely downplaying whatever had happened. His stomach twisted into fresh knots, despite the fact that she was standing before him, seemingly unharmed.
"All right," he agreed at last. "Follow me, Herc."
He led the ancient hero up the stairs and directed him to the guest bath. Clark rummaged for a few moments, gathering up some fresh towels and first aid items, so that Hercules could tend to his wound once he was washed.
"Hey," Clark said, as he handed Hercules the items. "I can zip by your hotel to get you some fresh clothes if you'd like."
"Uh, sure. That'd be great. Thanks."
Hercules fished the plastic card key out of his back pocket and gave Clark the room number and hotel name. Clark ducked into the master bathroom and took a long, leisurely two minute shower. Feeling refreshed, he slipped into a fresh suit and sped over to Hercules' hotel. Glancing around the hallway to ensure that no one was watching, he let himself into the dark room. He found a light switch on the wall, and took in the mostly orderly room he was standing in. Then he got to work, quickly stuffing a few items into a black gym bag that he found on the floor. Satisfied, he turned off the light and slipped back out of the room. He was back at his house less than three minutes later. He hung the gym bag on the doorknob of the bathroom, where, even without his super hearing, he could hear Hercules whistling a tune while the shower splashed. Clark retreated back to his bedroom and changed out of the Superman suit and into a pair of thin, red plaid sleep pants and a black t-shirt.
He was about to exit the room when he suddenly remembered the shards of stone in his hidden pockets. He retrieved the besmirched cape from the hamper and fished the pieces out. He did not join the pieces, not just yet. He would wait until they were all together to do so. At any rate, Hercules certainly deserved to be there when he did so.
He found Lois and the others still in the living room, though the card game had stopped. Everyone seemed to be waiting for Clark and Hercules to join them. Clark slumped onto the couch next to Lois, putting the shards on the coffee table before him. A sense of weariness settled over him, catching him off guard. But, he reasoned, he had spent a good portion of the day below ground and away from the energizing rays of sunlight that he needed. It was no wonder that he was feeling tired. He leaned over and kissed Lois lightly on the lips, needing the contact with her desperately. He'd spent the entire day worried about her safety. But to see her now before him in one piece, he felt like he could finally breathe a small sigh of relief. Still, he was worried about the markings on her neck and his gut was still twisted into knots.
A few minutes later, Hercules came down the stairs to join everyone in the living room. He was dressed in the items that Clark had gotten for him, and a length of gauze was wound around his injured arm. Clark could smell the faint trace of antiseptic ointment beneath the wrappings. Hercules held the diamond dagger in one hand.
"Thanks," Hercules said, the one word encompassing his gratitude for everything.
Clark nodded. "Anytime."
"You guys must be hungry," Lois said, standing.
"Starving," Hercules agreed.
Lois nodded. "There's some leftover pizza in the kitchen. Let me go heat it up for you."
"Just bring it in here. I'll heat it up," Clark offered.
Lois nodded and breezed out of the room to retrieve the cold pizza. Hercules placed the dagger onto the table next to the shards. Then he settled onto the couch opposite from Clark. He sighed heavily in his tiredness. A peaceful silence stretched out into the room. Not long afterwards, Lois reemerged, armed with a box of pizza and a couple of cold Pepsi bottles. She set the box down and Clark lifted the lid. Pushing his glasses down, he quickly reheated the food with his heat vision until it was steaming. He and Hercules both grabbed a slice and ate hungrily. In no time at all, Clark had wolfed down four slices and Hercules an additional two and a half.
"So?" Gabrielle asked finally. "What happened?"
Clark sighed and reached for one of the Pepsi bottles. With a quick twist, he removed the cap and drank, emptying half the bottle in one thirsty swig. He exchanged a look with Hercules. In unspoken agreement, they decided to let Clark be the one to tell their tale.
"Okay," he said at last. "The good news is, as you can see, we got all three pieces."
"And what about the dagger? Ares didn't mention that," Xena said with a frown, eyeing the weapon on the table.
"No, he didn't," Hercules agreed. "But he might not have known about it."
"We found it in the first labyrinth," Clark explained. "There were markings on the altar with the stone, indicating that we need it to defeat Dahak."
"Is that dagger made of what I think it is?" Lois asked.
"Pure diamond," Clark confirmed.
"Incredible," she said in awe, wanting to touch it but not yet daring to.
"Anyway, the first piece we retrieved was the one at the North Pole. The labyrinth was easy enough, but the whole place started to collapse once we took the stone. Even with my speed, we barely got out of there in time. Next, we went to get the piece in Norway. That one was a little harder to find, and the labyrinth had a few extra surprises for us."
"Surprises?" Gabrielle asked.
"Booby traps and a couple of frost giants to do battle with," Hercules said.
"And I missed this?" Iolaus pouted.
"We went to Egypt last," Clark continued. "We had to wait until the tourists left the area. I didn't want to bring attention to what we were doing. That ate up more time than I thought it would. But we finally got the chance to search for the labyrinth. That one gave us our biggest challenge of all. There were a ton of traps and when we finally got the shard, stone statues of the gods attacked us. They were impervious to anything but the other statues, so we had to force them together to destroy them. That's when Herc got wounded."
"What happened?" Iolaus asked.
"I got bit by the crocodile god's statue," Hercules replied with a shrug.
"Man, you just had to go and have all the fun. I can't believe that I missed out on this!" Iolaus said, throwing his hands up into the air. His tone of voice suggested that he was truly devastated to have missed such a grand adventure.
Hercules squeezed his friend's shoulder lightly. "I'm sorry, Iolaus. You know that I would have loved to have had you with me if it was possible. There's no one else I'd rather have fighting at my side. No offense, Clark. I'm glad to have fought with you, but Iolaus and I were quite the team in our day."
Clark grinned. "Absolutely none taken."
"So that wound on your arm. It's from what? A stone crocodile?" Lois said.
"That's about the extent of it, yeah," Hercules nodded.
"Well, shouldn't we get you to a hospital or something?" she pressed. "You might need stitches."
Hercules shook his head. "We can't afford to raise eyebrows right now. Or the time delay. Besides, it's not even bleeding anymore thanks to Clark."
Clark tapped the rim of his glasses, indicating his heat vision. "So what about you? You said that you had some sort of adventure without us?"
Lois nodded and faltered for a moment, looking for the right way to put her story into words, without upsetting Clark. Xena spoke up first.
"We were forced to confront Alti," the warrior princess said gently. She seemed unwilling to alarm Clark.
"What? Why?" he asked.
"She was a threat that we couldn't afford to ignore," Xena replied vaguely.
"You should have waited. I would have taken care of her," Clark said adamantly.
"We couldn't wait," Gabrielle said.
"Why not?"
"She was after our kids, Clark," Lois said in a quiet voice.
"What?"
Clark stood, his hands clenched into tight fists. Cords of muscle stood out on his arms from the sheer tightness in his body. His dark eyes flashed with anger and fear. He looked ready to fly out into the night to track down the threat to his family. Lois lightly touched his arm, trying to soothe him. After a tense moment, he relented and sat down once more, though he remained on edge .
"What happened?" he asked, his voice tight with his controlled anger.
"Aphrodite came to us and said that Alti was on the move. She wanted to use our kids as bait to lure you to her," Lois explained. "So Xena decided to go out and meet her in battle to prevent her from doing just that."
"How?" Clark looked confused. "I mean, she could have been anywhere, right?"
"I went into the spirit realm," Xena explained. "It was easier to find her and fight her there."
"We all went," Lois said.
"Spirit realm?" Clark asked, arching one eyebrow.
Xena nodded guiltily. "I had to separate our souls from our bodies. Together we fought Alti and slowed her down."
"Separate your souls from your bodies?" he repeated, sounding concerned. "Sounds extremely dangerous." He sent a pointed look at Lois.
Lois blushed a little. Clark's tone told her that she hadn't heard the last of his concerns over her actions.
Xena shrugged. "It can be, if you don't know what you're doing. As luck would have it, I've done this several times before. I tried to make Lois stay behind, but she's pretty stubborn."
"Tell me about it," Clark said.
"Our children were in danger," Lois said hotly. "I wasn't going to just stand aside and wait to see what happened."
"I'm glad that she forced me to bring her along," Xena admitted, quickly coming to Lois' aid. "Alti's strength and power has been augmented by her unholy allegiance with Dahak. It took the combined strength of all of us to triumph."
"And the marks on your necks?"
"Wounds sustained in the spirit realm manifest in the real world."
Clark nodded thoughtfully. "So, what now?"
"We beat her pretty soundly," Iolaus boasted. Xena glared at him for the briefest of moments and he took the hint. "I mean, we bought ourselves a little time, and enough time for your kids to get out of harm's way."
"Where are they now?" Clark asked, worry creeping back into his voice.
Lois shook her head. "I don't know. I told your parents to take them as far as they could and not to contact us, in case Alti has spies eavesdropping. Once this is all over, we'll call them and have them come home."
"I should go look for them. Make sure that they are okay."
"How would you find them?" Iolaus asked.
Clark tapped his right ear once. "I know their heartbeats as well as I know my own. As well I as I know Lois'. I can find them if I try."
"No." Xena shook her head. "If you go after them, and if Alti is already back on the hunt, you'll only draw her to them."
Clark ran a hand through his hair, a sure sign that he was still ill at ease. "You're right," he said after a moment. "And thanks for what you did. I didn't mean to sound ungrateful. I just wish I could have done something to help," he said, addressing Xena, Gabrielle, and Iolaus.
"But you did. You got the stone," Gabrielle pointed out.
"Speaking of, we should probably put it together," Hercules said.
Clark nodded. He reached over to the coffee table and took up the three sections of the stone. He swiftly arranged them and pressed the pieces together, wondering how in the world they were going to stay together. He looked questioningly at Hercules, but as the pieces came into contact with each other, a piercing blue-white light shot forth. Everyone was forced to avert their eyes, even Clark. The light illuminated the whole of the living room, bathing it in an ethereal glow. It lasted a full half a minute, then abruptly vanished. Everyone blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the lingering spots in their vision. When they could see again, they turned their eyes to the stone.
It was completely fused together.
Clark slipped his glasses down again, x-raying the sapphire in his hand. He could see not a single crack or flaw within the gem. Whatever magic was wound around it, it was strong. It was as if the gem had never been split in the first place. He was impressed. Remembering that Hercules and the others could now touch the stone since it had been restored, he handed it to Hercules.
"It looks flawless to me. How does it look to you?" he asked.
Hercules took the stone and inspected it from every angle, just as Clark had done moments before.
"It looks exactly as I remember it."
"Good," Xena said.
"So what's the plan now?" Gabrielle asked.
"We draw Alti into battle," Xena replied. "Tomorrow we pick a spot and wait for her to show up. If she's already healed herself from the damage that we caused today, I have no doubt that she will find us."
"We have to fight her in her mortal form," Hercules cautioned. "The stone and the dagger are useless in the spirit realm."
Xena nodded and a half smile ghosted over her lips as she gazed over to the spot where her weapons stood. "I know."
"So the next question is: where do we have the battle?" Iolaus said, grabbing the last half slice of pizza from the box on the table.
"Someplace out of the city," Clark said. "I don't want to risk having anyone else get hurt."
"How about up near Perry's fishing cabin?" Lois asked. "It's pretty desolate up there. No chance of any passersby being in danger. Or accidently coming across certain secrets."
"That's not a bad idea," Clark admitted with a grin. "Okay, I think that settles that part then. What else?"
Xena shook her head. "We get a good night's sleep. That's all we can really do."
"There has to be something else," Clark pressed, sitting forward on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees.
Xena shook her head. "Hercules, Iolaus, Gabrielle and myself will be doing the bulk of the fighting. And if all goes the way that I think it will, it will mostly be me. I know Alti. I know how she thinks and how she fights. When the battle begins, just make sure that I have that dagger ready to go."
"You shouldn't be fighting on my behalf," Clark argued. "You already did that once before, remember?"
Xena smiled at the memory. She had enjoyed throwing a wrench into Caesar's gladiator fights when she'd had to rescue Clark on their last adventure together.
"I remember," she said. "And I also remember you being unwilling to go for the kill. Unless that has changed, I need to be the one to take on Alti."
Clark hesitantly relented. It was true. Despite the threat to himself and his family, he knew that he would never be able to bring himself to take a life. He handed Xena the dagger and Hercules gave her the Stone of Creation. She thanked him with a look and a nod of her head, her blue eyes intent and rivaling the sparkle of the large sapphire she held. Carefully, she placed the stone into the open space on the pommel of the dagger. The stone was a perfect fit. There was a flash of golden light as the two fused into one object. Xena held the dagger to the light coming from one of the lamps in the room. The stone seemed to draw in the light like a sponge. It flooded down into the diamond blade, making the whole weapon glow. Clark could only imagine what the weapon would look like once it was absorbing the sunlight.
Suddenly, he felt very uneasy about the whole affair. A thought occurred to him that hadn't before. Were his actions going to make him an accessory to murder? He shivered a little at the thought. If all went well, Alti would not be leaving the field of battle alive. And he had been the one to retrieve the dagger that would end her life. Or did the very fact that if Alti died, she'd be doing so in battle, which was always carried an uncertain outcome, take away the responsibility from him? Either way, he suddenly was very ill at ease with the upcoming battle. He squirmed a little in his seat.
"If it makes you feel better," Xena said, seeing his unease, "I'll do what I can to spare Alti's life. If I can separate her from Dahak's embrace, I'll keep her alive so that your local magistrate can deal with her. But I will make the kill if I have to. Dahak needs to be destroyed at all costs."
Clark dragged his hand through his hair again and slowly nodded. Xena was right. If Dahak wasn't stopped, all of mankind would suffer. He only hoped that they could separate Alti from the evil deity without killing her.
"Agreed," he said finally. His eyes lingered on the dagger in Xena's hand. "Let's hope tomorrow is going to be sunny. Otherwise we don't have a chance."
He picked up the remote and the turned television on. He rapidly pressed the buttons to bring up the Weather Channel. His fingers tapped impatiently on his leg as he waited for the local forecast to come on screen. The others sat in rapt attention, still somewhat mystified at the strange vision-box. At last, the local forecast came up on screen. Clark breathed a sigh of relief. There was nothing but mostly sunny skies for the next few days, with scattered showers and colder temperatures later in the week.
"You still have Oracles?" Gabrielle asked, surprised.
"What? No," Clark said. He kept forgetting that half the people in the room were unused to modern living.
"Then how do they know what the weather is going to be like before it happens?"
"It's...complicated. But there's nothing magical or special about the people who predict the weather."
"And they're wrong as often as they are right," Lois said.
Hercules stifled a yawn. "Sorry," he said, as a second one racked him. "It's been a long day."
"We better all get some rest," Xena said. "Tomorrow's battle isn't going to be easy."
"It never is," Hercules said with a grin and a shake of his head.
Clark did not sleep well at all that night. He saw every hour, in between fitful periods of troubled dreams and nightmares that chilled him down to the very marrow of his bones. He responded to three emergencies in the small hours of the night; a fire and two car accidents. At the second accident, he was forced to deliver a thankfully healthy baby girl when the mother went into sudden labor. He almost wished that there was more of a need for Superman that night, to give himself something to do as he fought the nervous insomnia that had gripped his brain and body. He did a quick patrol over the city, but it was mostly a quiet night. Eventually, he could find no further reasons to stay out. He returned to a quiet house. Checking in on his new found friends, he found them all sound asleep in the living room, with Iolaus snoring loudly. He envied the warriors. They had been through so many battles that the prospect of this one didn't faze them enough to interrupt their slumber. Even Lois seemed to be sleeping deeply when he returned to the bedroom, though he knew that her rest came purely from fatigue.
Finally, around five in the morning, he passed out from sheer exhaustion and slept soundly for a good three hours. He awoke feeling stronger, as he was laying in a pool of warm sunlight. Lois had thought ahead and left the blinds open, knowing that he had spent a good portion of the previous day below ground as he quested for the Stone of Creation. She was asleep in the crook of his arm, pressed against his chest, having sought out contact with his body even in her sleep. He smiled down at her and kissed the top of her head. She murmured groggily as she awakened.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," he apologized, his voice a soft whisper.
"No, it's okay. We should probably be getting up anyway," she said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with the back of her free hand.
Within the hour, Clark and the others had eaten a hasty breakfast of frozen waffles and were headed off to the woods outside of the city limits, near to where Perry had his fishing cabin. Xena, Gabrielle, and Iolaus rode with Hercules in his car. Lois drove on ahead of them, alone in her Jeep, while Clark flew above, scouting the area. They reached the woods with no incidents, pulling their vehicles off the road and carefully winding through the trees to a small clearing that Clark directed them to. They had seen neither hide nor hair of Ares, Aphrodite, or Hades, though one of them had left Iolaus, Gabrielle, and Xena's old battle clothing for them. Xena looked grateful to be back in her dark leathers. Hercules and Xena seemed to believe that they would not be seeing the gods again until the dust settled from the impending battle.
Clark and the others were leaning against the Jeep, talking, when an old red Chevy Blazer with tinted windows burst into the clearing. Clark was instantly on his feet, standing away from the car. His hands were balled into tight fists as he prepared to meet his rival face to face. The car stopped as the driver threw it into park and killed the ignition. Clark focused his senses, aware of everything around him. The rejuvenating, warm shafts of sunlight. The light breeze that rustled through the leaves and made his cape flutter out behind him like a battle standard. The sharp bursts of yellow and red leaves on a handful of trees. The increase in Lois' heartbeat. The steady, even breathing of the four ancient warriors who stood two steps behind him and to either side. The nearly imperceptible rasp of Xena's fingertips on her chakram. Iolaus, clearing his throat, impatient for the battle. The ticking of the Chevy's engine as it began to cool.
And then the sound that made Clark's heart stop.
Three distinct heartbeats that were half his own and half his wife's.
To Be Continued...
